Durham College’s What matters to you? Recruitment campaign recently won bronze in the Best Student Recruitment Initiative category of the Prix d’Excellence awards from the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE).

The Best Student Recruitment Initiative category recognizes successful marketing strategies and techniques that show an understanding of the institution’s mission, strengths and unique qualities and how well they are communicated to prospective students.

Launched in May 2012, the What Matters to You? campaign was a multi-platform recruitment campaign designed and implemented by Durham College’s Communications and Marketing department. It was developed to help support enrolment numbers for the fall 2012 intake.

With more than 95 full-time programs and a variety of disciplines involved, the team worked diligently to create a cohesive campaign that’s representative of all academic schools and applicable programs. By personalizing the campaign to the individual and speaking directly to students, the campaign also stayed true to the college’s mission statement – the student experience comes first.

From May to September, the campaign garnered 1,075 video views on YouTube; 16,671 page views to the microsite; 398 visits through advertising to the microsite; and 430 unique submissions through the What matters to you? online form, leading to an overall enrolment increase of 15.3 per cent – the highest enrolment growth in the province.

For an overview of the various elements of the campaign view this presentation.

The PRIX d’Excellence is the annual awards program of the CCAE, recognizing outstanding achievements in alumni affairs, public affairs, communications, marketing, development, advancement services, stewardship, student recruitment and overall institutional Advancement. Competitors include universities, colleges, institutes, independent schools and cégeps from across the country.

The college’s 2013 recruitment campaign recently kicked-off. When I graduate, I’m going to builds off of the success of last years campaign and promises to be another successful initiative.